Wolf Creek
by moosals
Summary: If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise!


**Disclaimer :** Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and all its characters. No copyright infringement is intended.

 **Author's note :** Merry Christmas! This is a companion piece of sorts to be read after Ch.12 of Grass Is Always Greener, though it can also stand alone. Perhaps this is the story Bella was inspired to write by Edward's drawing and their visit to Wolf Creek...

* * *

"Are you having fun, Bells?"

Bella clenched her teeth and dug her nails into her palms. She had told him time and again not to call her by that name, that it was her dad's special name for her and only he was allowed to use it, but Jacob never listened.

"I'd be having a hell of a lot more fun if you'd not strayed from the trail and gotten us both lost," she said, glaring at him.

"Nah, this is real hiking, Bells. Only wimps stick to the trail."

"Yeah, right," she muttered to herself, "but I bet wimps make it back home before nightfall."

The sun was already going down. It would be twilight soon and yet they were nowhere near the spot where they'd parked her truck, early that morning. She had more than one regret about coming on this trip and, right now, she was really wishing she'd stayed at home. If Jacob called her "Bells" one more time, she might just wish for him to die a horrible death.

"Bells, I think I've found a trail marker over here," he shouted, oblivious to her increasing irritation. "Yes! Look! Which way, do you think? Left or right?"

He studied the map, not that it would do them much good; map reading was clearly not a skill he possessed, despite his claims to the contrary.

Bella turned to the left and froze on the spot, not daring to even breathe. There on the trail, some distance away from them, was a tall, dark figure. She squinted at it, trying to make sense of the strange shape. The body was a mass of black with no discernible arms or legs and the face, if one could call it that, was a featureless, pale oval shape with a halo of bronze flames, flickering in the breeze.

To her horror, the outline of the figure began to quiver and blur. It settled again almost immediately, but now the figure appeared to be much closer to where she was standing than it had been previously.

Keeping her eyes wide open, she reached back to grab hold of Jacob's arm.

"Jake," she whispered urgently, "there's someone on the trail path." But as the last word left her mouth, she blinked and, in that fraction of second, the figure vanished into thin air.

"There's nothing there, Bells, it must have been a trick of the light."

Bella frowned. She wasn't one to fantasise or make up stories. She was absolutely certain she'd seen something on that path, but couldn't say whether it was a man, an animal or something in between.

She waited a few minutes more, willing the figure to reappear before she turned in the opposite direction and moved swiftly along the trail. "Let's go this way," she said over her shoulder.

Jacob followed behind her without question and they wound their way through the trees until they came to a small clearing and a fork in the trail.

"Which way now?" she asked. "Can you find this on the map?"

She looked around anxiously, bringing her hand up to stifle a gasp when she saw the dark figure ahead of them once again, standing on the right hand path. This time, she concentrated all of her attention on its face and, for a brief moment, she could have sworn she saw two small flashes of red exactly where one would expect to see its eyes.

The figure shimmered and its shape became more defined. She could see the lines of its arms and legs now and even make out a pair of pale hands. She was almost certain that she was looking at a man.

"This way," she said suddenly, snatching the map out of Jacob's hands.

Jacob happily let her lead, relieved to be free of responsibility at last. Bella couldn't blame him for her own errors of judgement.

The left hand path ran alongside a creek. Hearing the constant flow of water at her side was reassuring to Bella as, in the fading light she struggled to see the trail. More than once she stumbled on a rock or a tree root, but she kept moving forward, refusing Jacob's reticent offers to take the lead again.

Eventually, they arrived at a break in the trees and found themselves standing on the side of a narrow road. Bella looked frantically in both directions, fully expecting to see the strange man once more, but there was no sign of him, or anyone else for that matter.

Jacob took his torch out of his backpack and shined it on the map, but it was a futile exercise. Nothing about their location gave them any inkling as to where they were. They could be miles from anywhere or one hundred yards from the nearest house. It was impossible to tell.

A chill crept up Bella's spine, making the hair on the back of her neck prickle. Very slowly, she raised her head and looked across the road to see the now familiar black shape emerging from the dense undergrowth.

Despite the lack of daylight, she could see that his black irises were rimmed with red, his bronze-coloured hair was long and unruly, and his ruby red lips were pulled up into a lopsided grin, exposing a perfect set of shiny, white teeth.

This creature was both alluring and terrifying and, she thought with a shiver, most definitely not human.

When he raised an arm and pointed a long, white finger to the left, she wondered if she should trust him. She reasoned with herself that if he wanted to hurt them, he surely would have done so by now under the cover of the trees.

"Come on, Jake." She pressed a hand to his back and pushed him forward.

"How the hell do you know where to go all of a sudden?" Jacob asked. "We've been lost for hours."

"Gut feeling," she replied, not daring to look back.

They walked briskly along the empty road until a large building came into view. Nearing the driveway, they saw the welcome sign for the historic inn that they had intended to book into for the night.

Now he finally had his bearings, Jacob took her keys and went a little further along the road to fetch their overnight bags from her truck. While she waited, Bella glanced up at the second floor windows and noticed all but one were lit, hopefully indicating that at least one room was still vacant.

It was dark now, save for the lights in the inn and a faint glimmer from the moon behind the clouds. She looked down at her feet to climb the steps to the front door, completely unaware of the red-rimmed eyes watching her from the high up in a tree.

Much to her relief, the only room available had twin beds. The last thing Bella needed after a day like today was to share a bed with Jacob and be forced to endure his attempts to touch her under the pretence of innocent sleep.

Ever the gentleman, Jacob was first to use the bathroom and he was snoring in the bed nearest the window by the time Bella had finished her shower. He'd turned out all the lights, even the one by her bedside, and left the drapes wide open and one window ajar.

The clouds had cleared and the moon was full, casting a silvery light into the room. Bella found her way across to her bed without incident, slipped off her yoga pants and hoodie and got under the covers, wearing only her panties and a camisole.

Right now, all she wanted was to get through the night and drive straight home to Forks. And then possibly never see Jacob Black ever again.

The mattress on her bed was so firm it hardly gave at all under her weight, so when she felt it dipping behind her, her eyes opened wide and her body tensed in fury. She rolled onto her back, ready to thump Jacob hard, but it wasn't Jacob sitting beside her.

With her right hand poised mid-strike, she was transfixed by the beauty of his face glowing in the moonlight. His skin was flawless, smooth and deathly pale and his eyes were now jet black. His lips were so full that she had the strongest urge to kiss them, but, when they parted, she could see the razor sharp points of his canine teeth.

Bella didn't move a muscle as an ice cold finger traced down her nose and over her lips.

"What are you?" she whispered, her throat suddenly dry.

"I'm Edward." His voice was deep, soothing, relaxing.

Without thinking, she raised her hand up a little further to run her fingers through his hair. He leaned into her palm, emitting a strange sound which brought her to her senses. She quickly withdrew her hand and lay her arm by her side.

"Not who, what?"

He raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"This is my room," he replied, brushing his fingertips down the side of her neck and resting them on her throat.

"You were helping us to find our way here, weren't you?"

His hand roamed down over her chest, caressing her breast through the fabric of her camisole. She tried so hard not to respond to his touch, but it was setting her body aflame.

"I was helping _you_ , not him" he said, scowling in Jacob's direction.

"Why?"

"Because you are mine," he said, throwing off the bedcovers.

"I don't belong to anyone!"

"And that is where you are wrong," he said, moving his hand further down her body and touching her in a place no one else ever had. "You are mine, as I am yours. You have no idea how long I've waited for you."

He lay himself down on top of her, aligning his hips with hers and brushing his lips over her neck. Even through his clothing, she could feel his body was cold and hard. Her body, by contrast, was on fire and pliant as she writhed beneath him.

She had to be dreaming. No man could bring her this much pleasure without even removing their clothes.

...

When she woke the next morning, Bella felt more refreshed than she could ever remember. She recalled what she now presumed to be a vivid dream and her skin flushed pink. She wished she were alone in the room and could relieve the ache that was building within her. She had never had dreams like _that_ before.

Both she and Jacob ate breakfast downstairs, paid their bill at the front desk and stepped outside. The weather was unseasonably warm, so Bella retrieved a hair tie from her backpack and pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

"What the hell is that on your neck, Bella?" Jacob said sharply.

"Huh?"

He grabbed her wrist and dragged her back into the inn, to the mirror in the entrance hall. On the right hand side of her neck, in line with her jugular vein, were two circular, red marks. On closer inspection, she realised her skin had been punctured. The surrounding area was blotchy and dull red, as if someone had sucked at her neck for quite some time.

She glared at Jacob's reflection in the mirror. "Did you do this?" she said, wiping at the mark as if it would come off on her hand.

"Why the hell would I do that to you?"

He stormed outside. Bella followed quickly behind him to the parking lot around the corner from the inn. They climbed into her truck and set off on the long drive home in frosty silence.

The further they got from the inn, the more uneasy Bella began to feel. She checked her rearview mirror repeatedly and held her breath at every intersection. The skin on her neck started to feel hot and itchy and after a while that discomfort began to radiate out to the rest of her body. Her throat became dry and she found it impossible to swallow.

After a few hours, they stopped at a gas station just outside of Portland and while Jacob filled the truck, she reluctantly went to the restroom to splash some water on her face.

She stood with her hands resting on the filthy sink, examining her neck in the mottled mirror, but the mark remained unchanged.

Suddenly, she felt every strand of hair on her body stand on end. It was the strangest sensation that made her whip round to check the stalls behind her. Both doors were wide open. There was no one there.

She bought a bottle of water from the store and drank it down while leaning against her truck, but still her throat was parched. Her limbs felt heavy and her head was spinning and as she slumped slowly to the ground, she caught a glimpse of red, black and bronze in the trees beside the gas station.

She was aware that she was lying on a blanket on the bed of her truck as it sped along the Interstate. She felt every bump and jolt rattle through her bones, but the pain from that was nothing in comparison to the inferno raging inside her. She fell into a fitful sleep, filled with images of red eyes, bronze flames and thick, black smoke.

As darkness fell, a cool hand cupped her cheek. Another stroked down her arm and held her hand. She tried so hard to open her eyes, but they had been welded shut by the heat.

The truck slowed as it crossed the boundary into Forks and, immediately, the cool hands were gone.

Jacob lifted her limp body out of the truck bed and carried her up the steps to her front door. Through the roar of the flames, she heard muffled voices.

"... don't know what's wrong... bitten...she's been delirious since..."

"Can you carry her up... doctor in the morning, if..."

"Will it be ok if... home... on the sofa"

"Night, Jake."

Then the cool hands were back, pulling back the bedcovers and removing her clothes. The hands were joined by a stone cold body, lying against hers. An arm draped itself across her chest, a leg eased its way between hers, but they only served to quell the heat on the outside.

...

Bella woke with a start. She was naked and alone in her bed under a single sheet of cotton. She jumped up and found herself facing the mirror. The mark on her neck had faded significantly, leaving just two silvery circles where the red puncture holes had been.

She inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of freshly baked bread and, ah, freshly brewed coffee.

Without even knowing how she got there, she was downstairs in the kitchen, but there was no bread on the counter and the coffee machine was empty. She followed the scent to the living room and found Jacob asleep on the sofa.

He had never smelled so appealing. She stood riveted to the spot, watching his chest rise and fall, breathing in his scent.

His eyes opened slowly and then widened at the sight before him.

"Um, Bells, you haven't got any clothes on," he said, not even attempting to avert his gaze. "You're dad's been called out, something about a dead body in the woods, but I can take you to the doctor if you still -"

"Jacob," she said through gritted teeth, "my name is Bella!"

She was on him in a flash. At first, he mistook her hunger for desire and made a grab for her breasts and ass. She licked up the right side of his neck and, as he hardened beneath her, he tilted his head back in pleasure, thus making himself an easy first meal.

...

Jacob's desiccated body was discovered that same day, half buried under leaves, dirt and stones, in the woods behind Charlie Swan's house. It was assumed that the killer had taken Bella too, though no trace of her was ever found.

Over the next few days, five lone hikers went missing in the expanse of forest to the east of the Interstate 5. The police received several reports of two mysterious figures seen on the trails at twilight, but the descriptions were varied and vague. Some fancied one of the figures was stark naked.

In the months following, there were more strange appearances and disappearances in the woods surrounding Wolf Creek. Even more peculiar though, were the tales of two ghostly pale creatures with red eyes having sexual intercourse in one of the twin beds at the Wolf Creek Inn.


End file.
